1.
Venezuela
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Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a federal republic located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, Guyana on the east, Venezuela covers 916,445 km2 and has an estimated population of 31775371. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples and it gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. This new constitution changed the name of the country to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District. Venezuela also claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and Venezuela has the worlds largest known oil reserves and has been one of the worlds leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports. The recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave Venezuela oil funds not seen since the 1980s, the Venezuelan government then established populist policies that initially boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, significantly reducing economic inequality and poverty. However, such policies later became controversial since they destabilized the economy, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola Piccola Venezia. The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence, where the suffix -uela is used as a term, thus. The German language 16th century-term for the area, Klein-Venedig, also means little Venice, however, Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that they found people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name Venezuela may have evolved from the native word and it is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish conquest, it has been estimated at around one million. In addition to indigenous peoples known today, the population included historic groups such as the Kalina, Auaké, Caquetio, Mariche, the Timoto-Cuica culture was the most complex society in Pre-Columbian Venezuela, with pre-planned permanent villages, surrounded by irrigated, terraced fields. They also stored water in tanks and their houses were made primarily of stone and wood with thatched roofs. They were peaceful, for the most part, and depended on growing crops, regional crops included potatoes and ullucos

2.
Gran Colombia
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Gran Colombia is a name used today for the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. It included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru, western Guyana, the first three were the successor states to Gran Colombia at its dissolution. Panama was separated from Colombia in 1903, since Gran Colombias territory corresponded more or less to the original jurisdiction of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, the Mosquito Coast. Its existence was marked by a struggle between those who supported a government with a strong presidency and those who supported a decentralized. The two men had been allies in the war against Spanish rule, but by 1825, their differences had become public and were an important part of the political instability from that year onward, the official name of the country at the time was the Republic of Colombia. The name Colombia comes from the Spanish version of the eighteenth-century New Latin word Columbia and it was the term preferred by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to the New World, especially to all American territories and colonies under Spanish rule. He used an improvised, quasi-Greek adjectival version of the name, Colombeia, to papers and things relating to Colombia. Bolívar and other Spanish American revolutionaries also used the word Colombia in the continental sense, the establishment in 1819 of a nation with the name Colombia by the Congress of Angostura gave the term a specific geographic and political reference. The Republic of Colombia comprised more or less the former territories of the Viceroyalty of New Granada and it united the territories of the former Third Republic of Venezuela, the United Provinces of New Granada, the former Royal Audiencia of Panama and the Presidency of Quito. Before a new constitution could be written by the Congress of Cúcuta, under the Constitution of Cúcuta, the country was divided into twelve departments governed by an intendant. Departments were further divided into provinces headed by a governor. Military affairs at the department level were overseen by a commandant general, all three offices were appointed by the central government. The central government, which temporarily was to reside in Bogotá, consisted of a presidency, a bicameral congress, the president was the head of the executive branch of both the central and local governments. The president could be granted extraordinary powers in military fronts, such as the area that became Ecuador, the vice-president assumed the presidency in case of the absence, death, demotion, or illness of the president. Since President Bolívar was absent from Gran Colombia for the years of its existence, executive power was wielded by the vice-president. The vote was given to persons who owned 100 pesos in landed property or had an equivalent income from a profession, in that year, none of the provinces of Quito, nor many in Venezuela and New Granada, were free yet. The Constitution of Cúcuta was drafted in 1821 at the Congress of Cúcuta, Bolívar and Santander were elected as the nations president and vice-president. To break up regionalist tendencies and to set up efficient central control of local administration, the Gran Colombian army later consolidated the independence of Peru in 1824

3.
Antarctic Treaty System
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For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters have been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since September 2004. The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1,1959, the original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58. These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the IGY, the treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific cooperation that had been achieved on the ice. Pursuant to Article 1, the treaty forbids any measures of a military nature and it prohibits all activities relating to mineral resources except scientific. A sixth annex on liability arising from environmental emergencies was adopted in 2005, the Antarctic Treaty Systems yearly Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings are the international forum for the administration and management of the region. Only 29 of the 53 parties to the agreements have the right to participate in decision-making at these meetings, as of 2015, there are 53 states party to the treaty,29 of which, including all 12 original signatories to the treaty, have consultative status. Consultative members include the seven nations that claim portions of Antarctica as national territory, the 46 non-claimant nations either do not recognize the claims of others, or have not stated their positions. Note, The table can be sorted alphabetically or chronologically using the icon, ** Reserved the right to claim areas. The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat was established in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2004 by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, jan Huber served as the first Executive Secretary for five years until August 31,2009. He was succeeded on September 1,2009, by Manfred Reinke, facilitating the exchange of information between the Parties required in the Treaty and the Environment Protocol. Collecting, storing, arranging and publishing the documents of the ATCM, providing and disseminating public information about the Antarctic Treaty system and Antarctic activities. Antarctica currently has no permanent population and therefore it has no citizenship nor government, all personnel present on Antarctica at any time are citizens or nationals of some sovereignty outside Antarctica, as there is no Antarctic sovereignty. The majority of Antarctica is claimed by one or more countries, the area on the mainland between 90 degrees west and 150 degrees west is the only major land on Earth not claimed by any country. Until 2015 the interior of the Norwegian Sector, the extent of which had never officially defined, was considered to be unclaimed. That year, Norway formally laid claim to the area between its Queen Maud Land and the South Pole, governments that are party to the Antarctic Treaty and its Protocol on Environmental Protection implement the articles of these agreements, and decisions taken under them, through national laws. The Antarctic Treaty is often considered to represent an example of the heritage of mankind principle. According to Argentine regulations, any crime committed within 50 kilometers of any Argentine base is to be judged in Ushuaia, in the part of Argentine Antarctica that is also claimed by Chile and UK, the person to be judged can ask to be transferred there

4.
Apostille Convention
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It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille and it is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document. Apostilles are affixed by Competent Authorities designated by the government of a state which is party to the convention, a list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Examples of designated authorities are embassies, ministries, courts or governments, for example, in the United States, the Secretary of State of each state and his or her deputies are usually competent authorities. In the United Kingdom, all apostilles are issued by the Foreign, to be eligible for an apostille, a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognised by the authority that will issue the apostille. For example, in the US state of Vermont, the Secretary of State maintains specimen signatures of all notaries public, likewise, courts in the Netherlands are eligible of placing an apostille on all municipal civil status documents directly. In some cases, intermediate certifications may be required in the country in which the document originates before it will be eligible for an apostille, for example, in New York City, the Office of Vital Records is not directly recognised by the New York Secretary of State. As a consequence, the signature of the City Clerk must be certified by the County Clerk of New York County to make the birth certificate eligible for an apostille. In Japan all the documents are issued in Japanese language. In India the apostille certification can be obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of 10 numbered standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961 is placed and this title must be written in French for the Apostille to be valid. In the numbered fields the following information is added, Country and this public document has been signed by acting in the capacity of bears the seal/stamp of Certified at the. Signature The information can be placed on the document itself, or attached to the document as an allonge, a State that has not signed the Convention must specify how foreign legal documents can be certified for its use. Two countries may have a convention on the recognition of each others public documents. In practice this means the document must be certified twice before it can have effect in the receiving country. The convention has 112 parties and is in force for all members of the European Union, the most recent state to accede to the convention is Chile. In 2005 The Hague Conference surveyed its members and produced a report in December 2008 which expressed concerns about Diplomas. The possible abuse of the system was highlighted Particularly troubling is the use of diploma mill qualifications to circumvent migration controls

5.
World Customs Organization
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The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The WCO maintains the international Harmonized System goods nomenclature, and administers the technical aspects of the World Trade Organization Agreements on Customs Valuation, in 1947, thirteen European countries established a Study Group to examine customs issues identified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. This work led to the adoption in 1948 of the Convention establishing the Customs Co-operation Council, on January 26,1953, the CCC’s inaugural session took place with the participation of 17 founding members. WCO membership subsequently expanded to all regions of the globe. In 1994, the organization adopted its current name, the World Customs Organization, today, WCO members are responsible for customs controls in 180 countries representing more than 98 per cent of all international trade. The HS multipurpose goods nomenclature is used as the basis for customs tariffs and it comprises about 5,000 commodity groups, each identified by a six digit code arranged in a legal and logical structure with well-defined rules to achieve uniform classification. The WCO revised Kyoto Convention is sometimes confused with the Kyoto Protocol, 3) ATA Convention and the Convention on Temporary Admission. Both the ATA Convention and the Istanbul Convention are WCO instruments governing temporary admission of goods, the ATA system, which is integral to both Conventions, allows the free movement of goods across frontiers and their temporary admission into a customs territory with relief from duties and taxes. The goods are covered by a document known as the ATA carnet that is secured by an international guarantee system. 4) The Arusha Declaration on Customs Integrity was adopted in 1993, the Arusha Declaration is a non-binding instrument which provides a number of basic principles to promote integrity and combat corruption within customs administrations. 5) The SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade was adopted in 2005, 6) The Columbus Program is a customs capacity building program works to promote customs modernization and implementation of their standards to secure and facilitate world trade. Because of its complexity, the WCO launched a capacity building program called the Columbus Programme which focuses on needs assessments for WCO Members using the WCO Diagnostic Framework tool. The WCO Secretariat is headed by a Secretary General, who is elected by the WCO membership to a five-year term, the current WCO Secretary General is Kunio Mikuriya from Japan, who took office on 1 January 2009. The WCO is governed by the Council, which brings together all Members of the Organization once a year, additional strategic and management guidance is provided by the Policy Commission and the Finance Committee

6.
Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization
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The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization is an international organization aimed at the promotion of sustainable development of the Amazon Basin. Its member states are, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty was signed on 3 July 1978 and amended in 1998. ACTO was created in 1995 to strengthen the implementation of the Treaty, the Permanent Secretariat was later established in Brasilia in 2002. Bolivia Brazil Colombia Ecuador Guyana Peru Suriname Venezuela ACTO official site

7.
Convention on the Continental Shelf
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The Convention on the Continental Shelf was an international treaty created to codify the rules of international law relating to continental shelves. The treaty, after entering into force 10 June 1964, established the rights of a state over the continental shelf surrounding it. The treaty was one of three agreed upon at the first United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and it has since been superseded by a new agreement reached in 1982 at UNCLOS III. Many other nations quickly adapted similar policies, most stating that their portion of the sea extended either 12 or 200 nautical miles from its coast, Article 1 of the convention defined the term shelf in terms of exploitability rather than relying upon the geological definition. Besides outlining what is legal in continental areas, it also dictated what could not be done in Article 5. In 1960, the United Nations held another conference regarding the Laws of the Sea, UNCLOS II, however, another conference was called in 1973 to address the issues. UNCLOS III, which lasted until 1982 due to a required consensus, the new definition of the Continental shelf in the new Convention rendered the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf obsolete. The principal reason for this was technological advancements, ratifications, at depositary Anna Cavnar, Accountability and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, Deciding Who Owns the Ocean Floor

8.
Berne Convention
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The Berne Convention formally mandated several aspects of modern copyright law, it introduced the concept that a copyright exists the moment a work is fixed, rather than requiring registration. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize copyrights held by the citizens of all parties to the convention. The Berne Convention requires its parties to treat the copyright of works of authors from other parties to the convention at least as well as those of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic, it is prohibited to require formal registration. However, when the United States joined the Convention 1 March 1989, it continued to make statutory damages and attorneys fees only available for registered works. Under Article 4, it applies to cinematic works by persons who have their headquarters or habitual residence in a party country. The Convention relies on the concept of country of origin, often determining the country of origin is straightforward, when a work is published in a party country and nowhere else, this is the country of origin. However, under Article 5, when a work is published simultaneously in several party countries, for works simultaneously published in a party country and one or more non-parties, the party country is the country of origin. For unpublished works or works first published in a non-party country, in the Internet age, unrestricted publication online may be considered publication in every sufficiently internet-connected jurisdiction in the world. It is not clear what this may mean for determining country of origin, however other U. S. courts in similar situations have reached different conclusions, e. g. Håkan Moberg v. 33T LLC. The matter of determining the country of origin for digital publication remains a topic of controversy among law academics as well, countries under the older revisions of the treaty may choose to provide their own protection terms, and certain types of works may be provided shorter terms. If the author is unknown, because for example the author was deliberately anonymous or worked under a pseudonym, however, if the identity of the author becomes known, the copyright term for known authors applies. e. An author is not entitled a longer copyright abroad than at home. This is commonly known as the rule of the shorter term, not all countries have accepted this rule. As to works, protection must include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, the Berne Convention authorizes countries to allow fair uses of copyrighted works in other publications or broadcasts. Implementations of this part of the treaty fall into the categories of fair use. This language may mean that Internet service providers are not liable for the communications of their users. Critics claim that the convention does not mention any other rights of consumers of works except for fair use, there is a legal debate about whether the U. S

9.
Convention on Biological Diversity
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The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. In other words, its objective is to develop strategies for the conservation. It is often seen as the key document regarding sustainable development, the Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993. At the 2010 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October in Nagoya, Japan, the notion of an international convention on biological diversity was conceived at a United Nations Environment Programme Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological Diversity in November 1988. In 1991, a negotiating committee was established, tasked with finalizing the conventions text. A Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1992, the Conventions text was opened for signature on 5 June 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. By its closing date,4 June 1993, the convention had received 168 signatures and it entered into force on 29 December 1993. The agreement covers all ecosystems, species, and genetic resources and it links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably. It sets principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and it also covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology through its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, addressing technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing and biosafety issues. Importantly, the Convention is legally binding, countries that join it are obliged to implement its provisions, the convention reminds decision-makers that natural resources are not infinite and sets out a philosophy of sustainable use. While past conservation efforts were aimed at protecting particular species and habitats, however, this should be done in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity. The Convention acknowledges that substantial investments are required to conserve biological diversity and it argues, however, that conservation will bring us significant environmental, economic and social benefits in return. The Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 banned some forms of geoengineering, some of the many issues dealt with under the convention include, Measures the incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Regulated access to resources and traditional knowledge, including Prior Informed Consent of the party providing resources. Access to and transfer of technology, including biotechnology, to the governments and/or local communities that provided traditional knowledge and/or biodiversity resources, coordination of a global directory of taxonomic expertise. National reporting on efforts to implement treaty commitments, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention, also known as the Biosafety Protocol, was adopted in January 2000. The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The Biosafety Protocol makes clear that products from new technologies must be based on the precautionary principle, the required number of 50 instruments of ratification/accession/approval/acceptance by countries was reached in May 2003

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate …

A satellite composite image of Antarctica.

Disposal of waste by simply dumping it at the shoreline such as here at the Russian Bellingshausen Station base on King George Island in 1992 is no longer permitted by the Protocol on Environmental Protection

This 1959 cover commemorated the opening of the Wilkes post office in the Australian Antarctic Territory.